It’s here! Last-minute guide to the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway
This week has already seen a Pit Crew Challenge and a Truck Series race and a visit from the North Carolina governor and several drenching doses of nostalgia.
And even still: The premier act remains ahead of us.
The NASCAR All-Star Race will descend on North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday at 8 p.m., punctuating a week that racing fans have waited on since it was announced in September 2022 and that Wilkes County residents have waited on for decades.
Fans can catch the action on FS1 and can follow it on the radio on MRN or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
Here are 10 questions that encompass everything you need to know ahead of the headlining race.
1. When was the last time NASCAR ran at North Wilkesboro? September 29, 1996. You’ll hear that date a bunch Sunday night. That Cup Series race was won by Jeff Gordon, with Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett filing in right behind him. That’s not the last time other forms of stock car racing have been here. Among other events that have been hosted here since that 1996 date: In 2010, Chase Elliott won a PASS (Pro All Stars Series) race, and in August 2022, Dale Earnhardt Jr. headlined a CARS Tour Late Model Stock race that helped fuel the racetrack’s revival. (There were also a bunch of race events this weekend leading up to Sunday.)
2. What is the format for the NASCAR All-Star Race? Fans will see 200 laps with a competition break at or around Lap 100. No stage breaks. Each team will start on sticker tires and have three additional sets to use.
3. How did North Wilkesboro land back on NASCAR’s schedule? This is a brutal question to answer in a few sentences considering all the moving pieces that made this happen, but here’s a quick summary: In 2019, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a documentary crew out to the dilapidated track to get it cleaned up and scanned to be put on the iRacing platform. Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith tagged along. Momentum for the racetrack’s return surged thereafter — but it wasn’t until millions of dollars of federal funding post-pandemic (earmarked by the state legislature to help renovate the track) came in that this all became a reality. The influence of Dale Jr. and the decision-making power of Smith took over from there. NASCAR officials and N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper officially announced that the All-Star Race would descend on North Wilkesboro in September, not far from the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh.
4. What is at stake in the NASCAR All-Star Race? This isn’t a points race, so no driver can hurt or help their positioning in the standings on Sunday. (Just ask Ryan Blaney — who won last year’s All-Star Race but hasn’t won a points race in 50-plus tries.) That said, as per tradition, the winner of the race gets $1 million.
5. What has been going on at the racetrack all week? A bunch of stuff. On Wednesday, two stock car racing series put on three different races. Several Cup guys and big names ran in those races. Among them: Dale Jr., Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Jordan Taylor and more. Friday saw Truck Series and Cup Series practice, as well as the thrilling Pit Crew Challenge. Saturday saw the Truck race and the Cup heat races. And Sunday will see the All-Star Open — where three Open drivers will advance to the All-Star Race (the top two race finishers and the Fan Vote Winner).
6. What kind of racing should we expect to see? If any of the feedback from drivers is true: The racing should be good. The track will be slippery, thanks to a track that hasn’t been paved since 1981, and there won’t be much shifting. Harvick ran in the Late Model Stock race on Wednesday and smiled when asked if this race would help him at all on Sunday: “I know how to get it in and out of the racetrack, so that’s a plus. The track’s great. It’s pretty slick. It’ll be a lot slicker with twice as much horsepower and a lot heavier car.”
7. Speaking of Harvick: Why is he not donning his normal number? One of the greatest drivers of all-time won’t be driving in his normal number (4) on Sunday. Instead, in keeping with the never-ending nostalgia this North Wilkesboro race has provided already, he’ll be driving the 29. That number is the one in which he made his Cup debut for Richard Childress Racing — the debut in which he replaced Dale Earnhardt after the driver died in the 2001 Daytona 500.
8. Will Alex Bowman make his return today? No, per a team spokesperson. Josh Berry will run in the 48 car instead of Bowman, who suffered a fractured vertebra about four weeks ago, a few days after the Cup race at Talladega.
9. Is everyone still mad at Ross Chastain? It sounds like the frustration at Chastain has ceased for a moment. The driver of the 1 Cup car got into Chevrolet teammate Kyle Larson and sent both drivers to the infield care center last weekend at Darlington, marking yet another weekend where Chastain found himself in some late-race controversy. Chastain ran in the Late Model Stock race on Wednesday at North Wilkesboro and told reporters then that he had fruitful conversations with Rick Hendrick and Kyle Larson and his boss Justin Marks (owner of TrackHouse Racing). In Chastain’s own words: “Together with everything else that’s happened, I deserve every bit of heat and every bit of bad word that’s came my way and every bit of ill will that people are thinking about me,” Chastain said. “I get it. I’ll take it. But the fact of the matter is I’m going to drive my race car to the best of my ability. And if I mess up, I will own that.”
10. Anything else of note carrying over from Darlington? Tyler Reddick’s 45 Cup team was penalized 10 driver and owner points for an added ballast, per NASCAR. The points deduction pushes Reddick down to 10th in the points standings. Erik Jones also saw two crew members suspended from the next two events after losing a wheel mid-race.
NASCAR All-Star Race details... all in one place
Race: NASCAR All-Star Race
Place: North Wilkesboro Speedway
Date: Sunday, May 21
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Total Purse: $3,563,159
Winner payout: $1 million
TV: FS1, 7 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 125 miles (200 Laps, no stage breaks)
All-Star Open at 5 p.m. (100 Laps)
